Sport shoes such as walking, running, tennis, basketball or soccer shoes, as well as skates, ski boots and the like must fit tightly on the user's feet. During certain maneuvers, with a running shoe during the support phase, heel strike and toe-off, for example, the tightness of the fit needs to be greater than during other times such as during the airborne phase or during the support phase midstance when the forces transmitted between the foot and the ground via the shoe are not as severe. In court and contact sport shoes, the tightness of the fit needs to be greatest when the largest forces are being applied between the shoe and the playing surface such as when changing direction. In the past, it was typical to tighten the shoe as much as possible, and physically bearable, to prevent or at least minimize relative movement of the foot in the shoe at times when maximal forces were transmitted between the playing surface and the shoe. As a practical matter, such a fit is excessively tight during most other times and quite frequently is uncomfortable, can lead to numbness, and in extreme cases, can even result in injuries. Thus, a compromise is frequently reached by tightening the shoe on the foot more than is necessary for the small forces that are applied and less than is desired to prevent relative movement of the foot in the shoe when large forces are applied. Consequently, the fit of such shoes is almost always other than what it should be.
This problem has been recognized in the past in connection with ski boots where the exerted forces are especially large and the required tightness of the fit for extreme maneuvers is typically unbearable for any length of time. Thus, this inventor has developed dynamic fitting systems which temporarily increase the tightness of the fit of the boot in response to certain skiing maneuvers, for example, by constructing the ski boot so that the tightness of the fit of the boot, or at least a portion of the boot increases in response to a forward lean of the skier. U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,979, entitled A SPORT SHOE WITH A DYNAMIC ADJUSTABLE CUFF ASSEMBLY, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,796, entitled A SPORT SHOE WITH A DYNAMIC FITTING SYSTEM, describe such dynamic fitting systems.
In many respects, ski boots present a particular problem because it is one of their objectives to significantly limit the mobility of the user's ankle joint. For practical purposes, the skier's leg is movable in only a forward direction and even this movement is greatly limited compared with the anatomical freedom of movement provided by the ankle joint. Further, ski boots are large, relatively bulky and have thick walls to provide the desired strength, rigidity and heat insulation. Consequently, there is ample space within which to build a system to tighten the boot in response to a particular movement, e.g. forward flex of the leg relative to the foot.
Up to now, little or no consideration has been given to the relative tightness of sport shoes, particularly lightweight, highly mobile sport shoes such as running, tennis, soccer shoes and the like. The lightness of such sport shoes and the lack of an adequate analysis of the interaction between the sport shoe and the user's foot led to the practice of simply tightening the shoe to suit the user's taste, feel or preference. In some instances, the shoe might be too loose and not infrequently, slip significantly relative to the foot in a particular strenuous maneuver such as a sudden change in direction in turning. This was considered an inevitable adjunct to participating in sports.
Upon closer analysis, however, it becomes apparent that there are distinct phases in the use of a sport shoe when forces applied by the foot to the shoe momentarily greatly exceed the normally encountered forces. In running, for example, when the runner places his weight on the forefoot just prior to the airborne phase when lifting the foot off the ground, there are significant forces which tend to push the foot in a rearward direction relative to the shoe. Conversely, during heel stride when beginning the support phase, that is when the foot contacts the ground at the end of a strike, there are forces generated by both the runner's weight and the deceleration of the foot which tend to move the foot in a forward direction relative to the shoe. Such movements may be relatively small, say in the order of no more than a few millimeters, but they are present and typically, they are repeated thousands of times during a single run. This can lead to discomfort, skin irritation from rubbing between the floor and the shoe and energy losses which though small are highly undesirable, particularly in competitive sports. The problem is magnified in contact-type team sports where the forces can be significantly greater than those encountered during running, for example. Up to now, no solution to this problem has been available.